Short Game

Other golf news in brief

Irish Girls team defend title

THE Irish Girls’ team will look to successfully defend the European Girls’ title, which they won for the first time last year, when the championship takes place at Aalborg Golf Club, Denmark, starting today.

Slieve Russell twins Lisa and Leona Maguire will be making their first outing since their Curtis Cup debuts in America last month and will be joined by by Stephanie Meadow from Royal Portrush and Laura McCarthy from Muskerry in a team captained by Sinéad Keane (Curragh) and managed by Ailish McCartan from Greenore.

Ireland beat Sweden 4-1 in last year’s final after accounting for England in the semi-final.

Dunne closes in style to land Youths Amateur Close

PAUL Dunne from Greystones fired rounds of 71 and 70 in testing conditions to capture the Irish Youths Amateur Close Championship at Dún Laoghaire Golf Club last Friday.

Dunne, the reigning Irish Boys Champion, lay two over par (four over for the championship) through 11 holes of his third round, but a blistering closing stretch featuring birdies on the 12th, 15th and 17th holes gave him a one-stroke lead over Richard O’Donovan (Lucan) heading in to the final round of the event.

Dunne, who had opened up with two rounds of 73, covered the opening nine holes of the final round in one under par to extend his advantage to three as O’Donovan dropped back.

Birdies on the 10th and 12th holes further cemented his position and the immensely-talented 17-year-old coasted home over the closing six holes for a comfortable two-stroke victory with a 72-hole total of 287.

Jeff Hopkins from Skerries shot a 71 in the third round and covered the last nine holes of the final round in 32 stokes on his way to a wonderful score of 68 to fly up the leaderboard – closing from 13th place overnight to eventually finish in runners-up spot, a superb finish, having opened with a 78.

Craig Martin from Kilkenny and County Sligo’s Barry Anderson were next best in a tie for third place on 291, four shots adrift of the winner Dunne.

McElroy captures third seniors title

SHEENA McELROY, this year’s centenary lady captain at the Grange, captured her third Irish Seniors Championship title in three years after beating seniors debutante Niamh Giblin from Dún Laoghaire 7 and 6 in the final at Tullamore Golf Club.

McElroy got off to a flying start with a birdie at the first and stood three-up through four holes as Giblin struggled to repeat the form that saw her record impressive victories in previous rounds.

The real turning point came at the seventh where McElroy found water with her approach. Giblin, who looked like reducing the deficit, cleared the green with her approach only to unluckily finish out of bounds and the gap widened to five holes. McElroy went on to increase the gap to six with a solid par on the short ninth and when Giblin failed to make inroads on the deficit, McElroy comfortably ended the match on the 12th green.

In the semi-final, McElroy holed from 10 feet for birdie at nine to turn three-up on her way to victory over Marilyn Henderson from Castlerock. Giblin had earlier put an end to Valerie Hassett’s (Ennis) excellent run. McElroy will now lead the Irish Seniors team at the European Seniors in Berlin in August.

Byrne wins marathon matchplay event

ENNISCORTHY golfer Dan Byrne has completed a masterful performance by winning the East of Ireland Matchplay at The European Club.

The event began in November of last year with Byrne beating his friend Malo Roban of Bunclody by 5 and 4 in the qualifying round.

Since then he has won seven further matches, culminating in a 3 and 1 win over home player Larry Kelly in the final.

Byrne met and beat players from seven different clubs during his marathon campaign and his other victims were Michael Burns (Castlerea), Andy Kavanagh (Wicklow), Liam Murphy (European), Chris Lonsdale (Powerscourt), Brian Kelly (Arklow) and Joe McConville (Killeen).

The East of Ireland Matchplay is based on the San Francisco City Championship and is open to men and women, amateurs and professionals, with hundreds of entries annually.

It starts in November when players pay an entry of € 60 and may arrange their own partners for the qualifying round, thus ensuring one member of each pair will secure a second match at least with no added fee.

The event is seen as a way to keep match fit on linksland through the winter.

Bookings for next winters tournament at 0404-47415.

Kelly keen to retain seniors title

KILLEEN’S Maurice Kelly, the reigning Irish Seniors Close and Open Champion, hopes to successfully defend his title at Blainroe Golf Club when the Tourism Malaysia-sponsored Irish Seniors Close Championship gets underway tomorrow and runs through until Friday.

Amongst those set to challenge him for his title are Munster Seniors champion Arthur Pierse from Tipperary and Connacht champion Barry Reddan of Co Louth.

THIS year’s National Championship for Ireland’s left-handers will be held at Palmerstown House GC on Saturday, July 24th. This is an 18-hole Stableford competition open to all male left-handed golfers with a GUI handicap.

Guests, both men and women – even right-handers – are welcome to play. Deadline for entry is Friday, July 16th.Entry forms are available on www.left-handed-golfers.com, or contact Jerry Bradley, 087 2539124.

O'Sullivan aces par four to land prize

HOLES in one are rare enough on par threes, but you certainly don’t see them that often on a par four.

However, at Royal Dublin last Saturday there was one such rare feat.

The miraculous ace came during Fergus Madigan’s President’s Prize and occurred at the par four 16th hole.

A tough hole at the best of times – it measures 282 yards – it was playing into a stiff breeze on Saturday, making it even a tougher test for all the competitors.

However, that didn’t deter seven-handicapper Niall O’Sullivan as he holed out with his driver to record his hole in one.

Not surprisingly with an ace on his card, O’Sullivan went on to win the Class One prize with a score of 35 points.

The overall winner of Fergus Madigan’s Presidents Prize was Owen O’Connor, playing off 24, who had an impressive score of 40 points.